1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a machine for crimping a plurality of electrical terminals one at a time onto wire leads, and, more particularly, to a crimping machine capable of inserting a terminated wire lead into a connector housing.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Machines for crimping a plurality of electrical terminals one at a time onto wire leads have found wide acceptance in the electrical connector industry. A conventional crimping machine includes a press which is actuable for up and down movement and a die assembly mounted on the press. The die assembly generally includes a die shoe with a crimp station defining where a terminal is crimped onto wire lead. A punch holder is provided opposite and spaced from the crimp station mounted on the press for movement therewith and having punch means mounted over the crimp station to engage terminal thereat. Finally, a conventional crimping machine die assembly also includes a terminal feed assembly for supporting and feeding a strip of terminals one at a time to the crimp station in response to the movement of the press.
The conventional crimping machine, as described above, usually requires an operator to manually place a wire lead at the crimp station and then actuate the machine so that the terminal is crimped onto the wire lead. Subsequently, the terminated wire lead is manually inserted into a connector housing which has a plurality of terminal receiving recesses formed therein.
In order to save assembly costs, it has been found to be desirable to automatically insert a terminated wire lead into a connector housing. One machine for performing this particular function is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,147 which issued June 22, 1976 and is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The subject patent discloses a machine that grasps an already terminated wire lead and inserts it into a connector housing which is indexed in the machine from terminal recess to terminal recess.
No machine efficiently performs both crimping terminals and insertion of terminated wire leads into a housing without the use of an expensive transporting system to move a terminated wire lead from a crimp station to an insertion station.